Chatting with Dave Clearwater – General Manager

Dave Clearwater – General Manager

In August, Annabella Gamboni of The Regional News chatted with Dave Clearwater, our General Manager, about his time in Wellington, what he loves about The Great War Exhibition and the hugely-successful Quinn’s Post Trench Experience.

Why do you think exhibitions like this are important for the public?

“The Great War Exhibition specifically, is telling a very important aspect of New Zealand’s history. You’ve only got to look at the attendance at ANZAC Days and how that’s growing. The youth are acknowledging now what our forbears went through a hundred plus years ago. It’s certainly not glorifying war, but it conveys to us younger people the hardship that our guys and gals went through.”

Can you share what kind of response you’ve had to the Quinn’s Post Trench Experience?

“Oh, unbelievably emotive. It’s very difficult to answer, because for most visitors, you want to ask, ‘Did you enjoy that?’ But it’s not that sort of experience.

“It affects people in different ways – whether it was the smells, and they say, ‘That really got me.’ Or it might be the explosions that happen when you’re walking through some of the confined tunnels … The beauty is if you’re exposed to something, you learn soothing new; you take away that new knowledge. Whether you ‘enjoyed it’ or not.